This guide is written for all gamers, who...
... are interested in public hardcore gaming but suffer this problem called TPPK
... search for legit ways to play D2 LOD in public games without being TPPKed constantly.

This guide is not written to...
... incite a new discussion about about PK or TPPK.
... explain any 3rd party programs which should make you immortal.

I take TPPK as a reality and try do deal with it.
I will tell you is my experience from 3 years public gaming and legal ways to simply avoid being killed by script.

This happens so quick that 1-2 of the projectiles are reaching your char while you get hostiled.

The result of this cowardly attack is very often lethal.

99.99 percent of the TPPK people use third party programs. Plain and simple they press a button and the script kills your char.
Often baalruns are done by 5-6 TPPKs working together, they watch your equipment in town using 3rd party programs. They talk with you very friendly and then they try to TPPK you.

In the end all TPPK users must follow the mathematics of this game, they must produce enough damage to one-hit kill you.
When you can avoid one-hit kills the TPPK problem is gone for you.

4.The most common TPPKs

It is important to know the common TPPK chars and maybe some exotic TPPKs (the group is not that big):

COLDSORC/ICE BLAST SORC

WINDDRUID

GUIDED ARROW AMAZON

FIRESORC/FIREBOLT SORC

LIGHTNING SORC

ENCHANTRESS

BONE SPIRIT/BONE SPEAR NECROMANCER

ASSASSIN (EXOTIC)

THROW BARB(EXOTIC)

And that's about it.
Playing online accompanied by a barbarian, paladin, assassin will do you no harm, all others chars can be TPPKs and nowadays in Hell HC almost all are TPPKs.

5.Damage, resistances and blocking

The damage dealt to you in PVP is the most important thing to know: If a char hostiles you the damage output follows this path:

1/6 PvP Penalty

Energy shield

Necromancer Bone armor/Druid Cyclone armor

Integer DR/MDR

Percentage resistances

Percentage absorb

Integer absorb

I assume you all understand the general info about resistances (taken from arreat summit):

Magic resistance (e.g blessed hammer damage):
Even though it does not appear on the Character Screen, each character has a Magic Resistance. The base is 0 for Normal, Nightmare, and Hell difficulties. The only item that can adjust this Resistance is a Crafted Safety Shield with +5 to +10% Magic Resistance.

Maximum elemental Resistance
Each character has a default maximum resistance of 75%, although certain items can raise that number as high as 95%. You can never become totally immune to elemental attacks with Resistances alone.
The maximum effective %resistance is +95%, the minimum effective %resistance is -100%, this is valid for all difficulties.

Physical Resistance
While it isn't displayed on the Character Screen either, this Resistance reduces Physical damage just like the Elemental Resistances lower or increase Elemental damage. On items it is displayed as "Damage Taken Reduced by x%", and Amplify Damage lowers this by 100%, Decrepify by 50%. It is then lower capped at -100% and upper capped at 50%.

How blocking works:

Blocking is capped at 75%, aka 'MaxBlock'.

Only physical non-spell damage will be blocked.

Keep in mind that Druid tornados and the Paladin smite skill cannot be blocked with normal blocking.

Note that blocking is at 1/3 when running (=25% max)

A special kind of blocking is the Assassin WB skill, that requires dual-claw equipment:

The block rate of WB is solely determined by the WB skill level (57% at slvl20) and cannot be altered otherwise (items, dex,...)

WB only works when standing still or attacking, WB is 0% (=ZERO) when walking or running.

Even on a full skilled assassin WB will rarely exceed 60%.

The advantage of WB is that it can block elemental attacks and physical spell attacks like the tornado.

6.TPPK chars in detail

COLDSORC

This character is considered the most common TPPK char. Cold mastery allows a sorceress to reduce the cold resists of the opponent up to –270% or higher. On Hell difficulty you need 175% resistances all to have a char build with acceptable resistances for PVM, because of the -100% penalty. If such a sorceress TPPKs you, you are dead if you do not stack your CR. If your char has about 450% CR, no coldsorc TPPK can do you any harm.
The most common attack skill from a coldsorc TPPK is iceblast, which usually reaches app. 10k iceblast damage. Another possible attack skill is blizzard. When using this skill the sorc casts the blizzard over a waypoint or TP which your char might use and then activates his script. The high amount of damage and reduction is reached by maximizing the cold synergies, using 9 coldskillers, annihilus, hellfire torch and a Deaths fathom. The rest of the equipment is ornated with cold facettes. It is possible to reach 13k iceblast damage, but the build would lack FCR, which is needed for TPPK, so the most TPPK coldsorces do 10k damage.

Example:

A coldsorc attacks you with iceblasts, 10k

PvP damage is 1/6: 10k/6 = 1666.66 damage remains

If your char has 75% (175% stacked) CR in hell difficulty (-100% due to the hell penalty), the –270% reduces your CR to –100% = you receive the double damage: 3333.33

Not many chars can tank 2 hits of this attack = 6666.66

What happens if you char is loaded/stacked with CR(450%):

-100% is reduced due to hell difficulty, -270% by the TPPK player = 450%-100%-270%=80% CR left.

With 80 percent of the 1666.67 negated, only 333.33 hits you.

If you use dual ravenfrost rings, another 40% (~133) of the cold damage is negated and healed back (+133), so there are 70 damage left.

I think the most chars on Hell difficulty should be able to tank 2 hits with 70 damage, if they don't, you made a severe mistake.

Now you might ask: How on earth can you stack 450%CR on your char?
My public sorc in HCL 3, which was levelled explicitly in public baalruns and never got TPPKed used the following selffound/selfrolled/selfcrafted equipment:

Wizardspike socketed with jewel +30 CR/9 dex = 105%CR

Skin of the Vipermagi socketed with 'Um' rune = 50%CR

Stormshield socketed with 'perf sapphire' = 100%CR

Trang ouls gloves = 30%CR

Annihilus small charm = 15%CR

Hellfire Torch = 20%CR

Shako, socketed with 'Thul' rune = 30%CR

Rare amulet+2skills +15str/fcr/15res all = 15%CR

Anya quests = 30%CR

Any collection of grand charms with life and CR +40life/+25-30%CR and small charms with life and 11%CR, = 55%CR

Result= 450%CR
There are many chars who can carry this equipment and they will be almost immune to cold attacks.

Don't forget:
Thawing potions, which can be bought in town have the effect to provide +10% max CR and +50% CR over 30 seconds, and the duration can be stacked.
Example: With 10 potions you have +10% max CR and +50% CR for 5 minutes (=10*30 seconds), a baalrun does not last that long.

FIRESORC

This character is quite common, but much rarer than a coldsorc. It produces more damage then a coldsorc, but is not able to lower your FR to negative values like the coldsorc.
The most common attack skill from a firesorc TPPK is firebolt, which usually reaches app. 20k. Another possible attack is fireball, a sorc can reach high amounts of firedamage on low level(char level:30-35) already and try to TPPK in normal games. It is also possible to be TPPKed with the meteor(app. 40k+ damage), but as we all know meteor has a time delay so the firesorc TPPKs will stick to firebolt/fireball.

The damage dealt by a firebolt TPPK is app. 20k, reached by using skillers, facettes, maximizing the fire synergies.

20k/6=3333.33 damage hits you with no FR.

If you got the usual 75 percent: 833.33 damage hits you, which is quite a lot, but there is a ultimate asset vs the firesorc: 'hotspur boots'.

It is a must for every public character to wear: with 90% FR the damage is reduced to 333.33 so your char is unTPPKable by firesorces.

The firesorc TPPK can reduce your FR only with facettes. If you stack your FR +30% you should be on the safe side.

LIGHTSORC

Even rarer than the firesorc, but still around. The attack skill is lightning but like the firesorc no reducing of your resistances, so easier to avoid.

The damage dealt by a lightning TPPK is app. 40k, reached by using skillers, facettes, maximizing the lightning synergies.

40k lightning, the 1/6 PVP Penalty reduces it to 6666.66 damage

If you carry the ultimate asset vs the light TPPKs: Thundergods Vigor, you got 85% LR, reducing the damage to ~1000.

Keep in mind that the damage you receive is not always the maximum, it ranges from 1-40000, so only a full hit takes away about ~1000 life.

Most important, the attack is so slow that everybody should see when a lightsorc tries to attack you, just don't stand in the lightbeam.

If your char wears a perfect wisp projector ring, up to 20% of the lightning damage is negated and 20% is healed back. This means only 600 lightning damage affects you.

A lightsorc TPPK can reduce your LR if she wears a griffons eye. Socketed with a light facette the reduction can reach -30%. My advice is to stack the LR as well. But +30% to +50% more should be sufficient.

You can see that Integer resistances can help but are more valuable PvM than PvP.
If you enter a TP from town and it is camped by TPPKs, it can be possible for a lightsorc to kill you. They tried to kill my my sorc this way but failed.

ENCHANTRESS

Enchantresses are used to enable fast leveling, but can make almost all characters able to PK or TPPK. Each projectile "enchanted" gets additional firedamage. If your character uses the hotspur boots, which as we know can be worn at lvl 5 you reduce 90 % of the damage already.

Enchantresses are used to TPPK low level chars mostly. The bow "widowmaker" grants the amazon skill +3-5 to guided arrow to all classes. Each class can TPPK low level chars with this bow when an enchantress adds the firedamage and the FR are low. Low level chars are advised to wear the nokozan relic amulet and hotspur boots to reach 95% FR.

WINDDRUID

I lost a char to a windruid TPPK attack once in Ladder1. The winddruid TPPK was spamming tornados towards my char in a public baalrun and asked me about my build. I started typing and he activated his script, my char (barbarian) was dead. This was the first and only time one of my chars died to a Winddruid TPPK. Of course this TPPK uses tornado as his attack skill and nothing else. The enigma armour enables the TPPK to be everywhere very fast and it makes this TPPK very dangerous.

This TPPK uses a physical attack, the damage output of a full equipped winddruid is about 6k and not blockable.

Exception is WB, a shadow skill from the assassin. WB blocks even tornadoes.

This high amount of damage is reached by using skillers,anni, torch and we know that a +6 tornado pelt is possible to trade.

1/6 PVP penalty reduces it to 1000. If you have 50% PDR it reduces the damage to 500.

Most important assets for your char vs a winddruid attack are therefore a shako (10%) and a stormshield (35%)= 45% PDR.

With these equipment no Winddruid can TPPK you, even if his tornado hits you 2-3 times. Winddruids are slow too, so easily to avoid imho. Almost all druids left in public HCL games are TPPKs, so very easy to spot.

GUIDED ARROW BOWAZON

This TPPK uses guided arrow as attack skill, which is a physical attack. This char is a very dangerous TPPK, remember: PDR is capped at 50%! The bowazon can attack away from screen and the guided arrow hits you without you seeing the attacker.

Like the lightsorc attack, these arrows have range from 500-12000 damage, so you can be hit with the maximum 12k/6= 2k.

Of course lower damage is likely because the attack can be blocked (instead of winddruid tornadoes that cannot be blocked - exception WB).

Don't forget: When your char is running, the blocking is reduced to 1/3 (=25% max); if you use WB the blocking is reduced to 0%!

This high damage output is possible by using max damage charms, using a max dex build and of course the windforce bow. If you don't have max block (75% chance to block) the arrows have a big chance to hit you, and the ability to tank 2k damage is not that easy even for lvl90+ chars.

I have seen many players dying to this build, simply by having no max block nor sufficient life. Whenever this amazon showed up, my sorc went to town (she had only 1300 life). My sorc was immune to elemental attacks but this char would have been able to TPPK her.
The chance to avoid being TPPKed by a bowazon is using ~50%PDR, maxblock and having mass amount of vita. The use of stormshield and shako is a must.
Chars like barbarians, paladins and druids should be able to tank her, a sorc should definitely be an ES sorc.
My second anti TPPK build had a mana bulb of 4000+, 400 mana recovery per second thanks to a prayer/insight mercenary and was laughing at bowiezon TPPKs. The arrows could not break the ES.

BONE SPEAR/BONE SPIRIT NECROMANCER

Most popular in 1.10, because the marrowwalk bug (lvl33 synergy) made them able to reach high amounts of unblockable magic damage. The attack skills are bonespear or bone spirit. But much fewer TPPKs are active with this char since 1.11, the marrowwalk bug is fixed now.

This TPPK can reach 6k bonespear damage, 1/6 PVP makes it 1k. This high damage output is possible by using skillers,anni,torch, using a "white" runeword with possible +8 to poison and bone skills.

The magic resistances are almost non existing in D2LOD. Using a crafted safety shield you can reach 10% magic resistance which does not really help here.

The magic damage cannot be blocked, so we need high life to be safe.

Fortunately these TPPks are not that popular anymore. It is easier to spot a bonemancer, because they rarely use summons. A necromancer which encounters you almost alone is very suspicious.

THROWER BARBARIAN

Even barbarians can be TPPKs. There was a thrower barbarian active once who reached over 20k damage. But: this build is so exotic, it wont happen to you, I really never ever met one.

ASSASSIN

Trapsins cannot attack like the mentioned TPPKs, simply because the traps vanish when the assassin goes to town. It is possible be TPPKed with 'shockweb', if you stand in the middle of it and have low LR. Well, Thundergods vigor is a must for each anti TPPK build, no resist reduce like using the coldsorc is possible. I personally never saw an assassin TPPK in 3 HCL seasons.

7.Things to keep in mind

Monsters who cast curses or have auras can affect the damage dealt to you. If some cursed monster casts amplify damage and a TPPK (Winddruid,Bowazon) attacks you physically while you are cursed, the damage output is doubled. If you are cursed and play with chars you don't know on public HCL, make sure that no amplify damage curse, lower resist curse or conviction aura affects your char. Simply go to town, remove the curse, but don't use the same TP to go back.

TPPKs, who act most of the time in groups, will camp your TP, one char in town will tell them (using probably a headset) when you go back and then they activate the script to TPPK you. My char survived several TPPK attempts, even with a camped TP, the elemental immunity was simply unbeatable.

A Conviction aura used by another player will not affect your resists or defense: TPPK is a kill from town and when in town the aura wont harm you anymore.

Never play our low lvl char with a high lvl char you don't know and get TPPKed. Level restrictions are your friend.

8.Killing TPPKs

Revenge is sweet: Why not try to kill the TPPKs?

A TPPK is somebody who uses all illegal means to reach his goal. The items on their chars are all duped, botted, stolen via trade screen hacks, traded on notorious sites, or bought on ebay. Nothing on these chars is legit, and of course the 3rd party programs have the possibility to save them. If the life bulb decreases to a certain lvl or the hostile noise comes up the char is automatically TP-ed to town, or leaves the game. Most of them are cowards, so they wont enter a duel, and if they duel, they kill you with hacks like farcast, etc...
Hunting TPPKs - using legit methods - is not possible imho and a waste of time.
But, these TPPK builds are glass cannons, build with max damage and low defensive capabilities. I have seen many TPPKs who died to monsters, entering a crowded TP(Moo-Moo level) or a bad TP in worldstone chamber.
So if you make a TP, and you know the TPPK will try to hunt you, make sure that some frenzy minotaurs, vipers and gloams, most preferably cursed, extra fast bosses with conviction auras 'guard' your TP. Monsters frequently kill TPPKs, it is true.

9.Anti TPPK builds

IMHO all chars except one can be build with the capabilities to be unTPPKable, when they have enough resistances, life, max block and % PDR, - with the necessary lvl.
The only char who cannot do this is a bowazon: Not enough life/no blocking/ insufficient resists.
A low lvl char (lvl30) will for sure not be able to tank a lvl90 coldsorc attack, or a chanted bowie.

You need a lot of life vs physical attacks, which means a good CTA or a barb you know accompanying and bo-ing you. After a few weeks and some hellforge runs its absolutely possible to get/make a legit CTA (if you hate the dupe selling morons on battlenet).The resistances you need are:

~220% FR... 190% to use the hotspur boots effectively and +30% to be safe if the TPPK uses fire facettes.

~450% CR...to counter the possible CR reduction of -270%.

~220% LR... 185% to use the Thundergods vigor belt effectively and +~30% to be safe if the TPPK uses lightfacettes/griffons eye.

All these TPPK safe chars have a low offensive capabilities, but the aim is to survive one hit kills – that's most important!

DRUID

It is the char with the most possible life, I played with a guy who had such a bear with 14k life. He was absolutely unTPPKable just because of his huge life bulb.
A druid not using wereforms will lack life. Any build you ever use needs max block, PDR, at least 4500 life and the resistances to be safe.

BARBARIAN

Your barbarian should have max block, PDR and vita, at least 4500 life, the resistances I mentioned and you are unTPPKable.

AMAZON

I never made an amazon unTPPKable, but with CTA and an item replacing the missing wizardspike (maybe kiras guardian socketed), you can reach the necessary 450% CR and are still able to kill PVM. Important: D/A/E helps vs. physical TPPK attempts. Combined with max block D/A/E makes an amazon very hard to hit. Just a few points invested in D/A/E brings the defensive capabilities over 50%.

BOWAZON

They can not be built safe vs TPPKs - they lack resistances, PDR and max block - if you want to play a TPPK safe build, don't use this one.

PALADIN

This char needs a CTA. He already has very strong defensive capabilities and can easily reach max block. Instead of using the wizardspike (75%res all), you can use a 4 socketed sapphire shield with 160%CR + 45%res all. Without doubt this class can be made practically unTPPKable.

ASSASSIN

If you have a CTA, max block, PDR, vita and the resistances I mentioned you are unTPPKable. No-one expects a assassin to be build this way. All assassins are most wanted targets for TPPKs, but built in the right way, not TPPKable. The skill 'fade' helps a lot - it boosts your resistances and %PDR. If you do not want to use a shield, the shadow skill WB allows the assassin to block while holding two claws. WB even blocks tornadoes, which can not be blocked using shields. Important: +%blocking modifiers on your gear or more dexterity do not add to WB. While the assassin is running, WB is reduced to zero. It is not possible to reach 75% blocking like using a shield, WB will reach ~60% blocking.

SORCERESS

A sorceress can be made immune to elemental TPPKs using the items mentioned above. It is much more difficult to make her safe vs physical attacks, simply because PDR is capped at 50% and it is hard to obtain a big life bulb with a sorceress.

You can avoid this problem with an ES sorc. This sorceress maximizes mana instead of life. Please note that ES is affected before %resistances.

ES sorc example:
Your ES sorc has max block, 45%PDR (stormshield and shako) and about 1100 life and 4000 mana. This high amount of mana is (only) possible if you have very good items, those 20/17 life/mana scs or 40/60 grand charms, SoJ and a CTA.
Your TK(synergy for ES) is maxed with 20 hard points invested and your ES is at lvl 40(possible by using a +9ES 'memory' staff for prebuffing), which means 95% of the attack is covered by the mana pool.
The ES affected before resistances means that even with max CR the ES receives the 1/6 PvP damage(Coldsorc example: 1666)

Bowazon attack: The arrow hits you with 12k/6=2k damage, 95%(1900) is covered by the ES, 100 remains, 45%PDR leaves 55 damage which hits you.Even two full hits can be covered by your ES. Remember, you have 75% block chance, a high possibility that the arrows do not even hit you.

Lightsorc attack: Since ES is affected before %resistances, a lightsorc attack (possibly 6666.66) can drain your ES. But once the ES is down your resistances should do the job.

If a coldsorc TPPK attacks you with iceblasts, 2 hits are likely, so 95% of 10k/6*2=3333.33 damage will go to your ES, which can be absorbed by the ES.

If a firesorc TPPK attacks you with firebolts, 95% of 20k/6=3333.33 will hit you. The first hit will be tanked by the ES, the second hit will hit your life bulb (with hotspurs boots no problem).

Do not forget: A prayer insight merc combined with a sorc which has invested so much attribute points in mana will lead to 400mana recovery per second or higher.
You can easily see that if your ES sorc loses the ES due to an attack or manaburn, she is vulnerable. This means that you still need decent resistances. Since a TPPK can drain your ES to zero, 450% CR are needed imho.

10.Example TPPK-immune character

The following table lists equipment to make a character relatively save against TPPK attacks. Please note that the items used in this list are achievable even for legit players. "Hard-to-obtain" items like the Annihilus charm are not included on purpose. If you have access to high-end items you can reach the necessary resistance values even easier. Special reduction by enemy player means the ability to reduce your resistances. To reduce LR and FR is much more limited,facettes are needed.

It is possible to build an TPPK-immune character, the necessary items can be found/traded by legit players.
Talking about charms you will definitely need a hellfire torch, and good grand charms. An annihilus helps a lot.
All other builds have an extremely high chance to get killed by TPPK in public games.

If you are a gamer who does not have the time to collect/trade/find the items to stack resists or simply wants to play in a safe area there are more possibilities to play with decent players other than private games. The channels OP XBananaX or OP gauss are a chance for you to step into a community who loves to play the game and not to kill with scripts. No need for you to play this beautiful game alone because of script kiddies.

I consider playing public with the TPPK threat as a challenge, a new possibility to build chars in a different way, and I am surprised how limited the TPPKs are if you make your preparations right.

I don't want to forget to mention this excellent battle.net link where you can find a lot of useful information about D2 and to say "thanks" to BlastDuke and Myelom for their support when writing this guide.